Nationwide Mercury Prize Judge Interview

The Nationwide Mercury Prize exists solely to champion UK music by selecting 12 albums of the year from British or Irish artists. The fact that the music is the only thing taken into account by the judges of the prize has played a major part in establishing it as one of the most credible and well respected awards of its kind, often finding artists happier to be shortlisted for this award rather than win an award from any other ceremony.

On the grounds that the award is much revered and is decided by a panel of judges, the judging process they undertake to reach a decision, both of the final winner and the 12 shortlisted albums, has always been subject to much intrigue. With the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Prize ceremony just around the corner ilikemusic caught up with one of the judges, Dean Jackson.

Having judged the prize for five years, Dean Jackson holds the accolade of the longest standing Nationwide Mercury Prize judge currently on the panel. Dean works as a producer and presenter for the BBC in Nottingham and one of his programmes, The Beat, has been on air since 1990, making it the longest running show of its type. In that time, hundreds of acts have graced his session studio well before being on the radar elsewhere, including Radiohead, Coldplay and The Prodigy. He also conducted one of the only UK interviews with the legendary Kurt Cobain. With a passion for uncovering new musical talent and putting unsigned artists on air or on stage with more established acts, it seems that Dean possesses exactly the right ingrediants one would expect to find in a Nationwide Mercury Prize Judge soufflé.
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